• Property for sale in Corfu’s best walking areas, on or near the Corfu Trail, the island’s premier hiking route
• Ideal holiday homes for enthusiastic hikers, nature lovers, and get-away-from-it-all Corfu devotees
• Potential rental income stream from Corfu Trail trekkers
• Productive business opportunities
• All types of property available, from little old cottages to potential hostels, modest hotels and land for development
• Become a Corfu resident in one of the island’s loveliest areas.

Corfu Island

While Corfu is best known for its holiday resorts and beaches, for its nightlife and spectacular monuments, it is also recognised as a tremendous island for hiking. It’s endowed with a huge variety of landscapes, from rocky mountains in the north, to bucolic plains in the centre; villages untouched by modern life, juniper-studded dunes, deep-cut ravines, salt pans and sea marshes, and everywhere rolling hills covered with an eiderdown of silvery-grey olive groves. The island’s size gives scope for a lifetime of exploration.

The Corfu Trail

Corfu’s distinct regions with their characteristic hikes are linked by way of the Corfu Trail, described as ‘the famous Corfu Trail’ in an August 2017 travel article in the Daily Mail. The Trail, initiated by private enterprise in 2001, is a 220 kilometre snapshot of the best that the island can offer walkers. Taking approximately ten days (different programmes may be shorter of longer), it only touches on clamorous mass tourism at one point, mainly taking in traditional villages and other low-key residential areas.

The Corfu Dream

As creator of the Corfu Trail, my dream came true – for the Corfu Trail is now renowned worldwide. But a secondary dream is being realised. I had hoped to see a day when the ‘tourist drachma’ (now the

euro) was spent elsewhere other than in busy resorts, spent in places where it would go directly into the hands of the locals, instead of into the maws of multi-national travel giants. A day when village tavernas and local shops would earn from slow-ambling visitors, instead of gaining nothing from those quick-passing in an air-conned hire car. Some of these businesses are now earning, thanks to the Corfu Trail.

I also saw the Corfu Trail as an artery, a ‘route one’ link between its regions, especially ones blessed with fabulous countryside. This too is happening, with a number of villages waking up to their hiking potential, and clearing and marking in some way their local footpaths and trails. Stavros and Agii Deka, Sokraki, and Vatos, all on the Corfu Trail, are among them.

Corfu’s Villages

Unlike in many places, where villages have been urbanised and gentrified out of all recognition, where the countryside is a vast industrial unit, the old life has not been sucked out of Corfu’s rural communities. Yes, many of the young people have moved abroad or to the environs of Corfu Town for reasons of work, education and social life, but their heart remains in the village, and the villages still possess a heart. Many have a taverna, a coffee bar or two, and generally a well-stocked store, a bakery, and some even a butcher. Fast broadband is widespread. Decent bus services link the settlements with Corfu Town. Many villages have a cultural department which organises local events, from the annual fiesta of the local church to a children’s carnival party. New residents from overseas are always welcome to join in.

The Problem

So popular has the Corfu Trail become, with hikers arriving from as far afield as Israel, Hawaii, Tasmania and Alaska, as well as from all over Europe, that those using it often experience difficulties finding on-route accommodation, especially during early spring (February to

April) and late autumn (late October and November) when the island is at its best for walking. These are weeks when most tourist accommodation is not open. During hiking ‘high season’ (May and early June; September and early October) most of the accommodation is pre-booked via local agents on behalf of overseas tourism companies.

We’d like to make sure walkers can find somewhere to stay at all times.

At present, the Corfu Trail Guide recommends a set programme of ten days with stopovers at certain designated locations. But not everyone wishes to follow that programme; they might prefer to take the Trail at a fast pace, or go more slowly. We want to offer that option too.

The Solution

So our answer is to identify property on the Corfu Trail which may potentially serve as accommodation for Trail hikers, whether it be Airbnb style, private cottages, or of a guesthouse/pension type. We are looking for investors to join us in this success story, which is becoming, indeed, a victim of its own success. Investors who will help themselves, and also help us.

With this in mind, we have, as a start, picked out six on-Trail villages which are suitable for hikers to overnight in – or indeed stay in for a wonderful extended walking holiday of a week or two.

Preferably, these locations would offer lots of other walks in the vicinity; and in-village facilities such as eateries and shops. The villages are (from south to north, just as the Corfu Trail passes through them) Stavros, Sinarades, Vatos, Giannades, Makrades and Sokraki.

Properties on the Corfu Trail

We are offering for sale tiny individual cottages as well as groups of them for conversion, modern houses, successful ready businesses with pension facilities, and the odd large old mansion to make a characterful boutique guesthouse. An investor might buy a home plus a number of small cottages to rent out, either to overnight Trailers, to longer term vacationers who wish to spend some time hiking, or to non-walking holidaymakers who just prefer to immerse themselves in peaceful rural life. Or they might wish to develop an out-of-village plot both for hikers and additionally as an – increasingly fashionable

– agrotourism business. All the properties on offer are directly on or very close to the course of the Corfu Trail. The in-house Trail creator can advise.

Resident on the Corfu Trail

Of course, there’s is no obligation at all to buy as an investment in order to accommodate Trail hikers. The villages have been chosen as ideal spots to reside in full or part-time, and to enjoy living in Corfu; as places where one can achieve a lifestyle change, either during regular holidays or on a more permanent basis. You don’t have to be a hiker to love these locations. From prices starting at just a few thousand euros, you can live out your Corfu dream.